England left with question of captain and coach

Feb 25 2008 By Jack Bannister

England's one-day series defeat to New Zealand raises massive question marks about Paul Collingwood, the captain, and Peter Moores, the coach.

Saturday's defeat was the fourth time in the five-match series when England were out-batted, out-bowled, out-fielded and, worst of all, out-thought off the field by New Zealand coach John Bracewell, whose job was on the line after the two misleading Twenty20 defeats.

Some dreadful after-the-match pap spouted by Collingwood and Moores included: "There are areas we need to look at, but also there were a lot of positives"; "Everybody is disappointed but we have learned a lot about the side."

Worst of all, when asked about the lack of yorkers: "The bowlers had to make their own decisions." Really? So there was no thought given by anyone about what length and direction to bowl.

Collingwood had a great series with bat, ball and in the field but the bottle labelled "captaincy nous" was empty as was obvious with the constant talking by Kevin Pietersen to the bowlers and hand-signalling to fieldsmen while Collingwood stood passively by.

Ian Bell and Alastair Cook batted well but seem locked in an old-fashioned time warp where hitting sixes is not an option. In five matches, New Zealand's top three hit 22 sixes, England's top trio four.

New Zealand deserve their world ranking of No 3 but England are lucky that only Bangladesh and Zimbabwe enable them to stay in seventh spot.

They were thrashed by a side that is individually inferior in at least seven positions but is a unit magnificently led and welded together by Daniel Vettori. They fielded like tigers - England were snail-like in comparison - and batted and bowled with a planned purpose clearly lacking in the tourists' mind-set.

No wonder New Zealand have four players of Saturday's team, plus Stephen Fleming, snapped up by the new and rich Indian Premier League, with Brendon McCullum's bank balance about to be swollen by £360,000 a year over the next three years.

Adam Gilchrist and Kumar Sangakkara are in the same bracket, with Indian wicketkeeper Mahendra Dhoni the highest-paid of anyone with £770,000 per annum.

Top-paid all-rounder is Andrew Symonds with an annual £695,000 while Scott Styris and Glenn McGrath fetched relatively low bids of £90,000. The IPL auction last week was a throwback to those school playground pick-up games where selection is done alternatively by two captains, with the smallest and fattest youngsters trying to look as though they didn't mind being left until last.

The ripples of what will be a seismic tidal wave are starting to lap around these shores. Vettori, Jacob Oram and McCullum will miss the start of New Zealand's tour here at the end of April because of the IPL tournament, while the International Cricket Council are hinting that a window could be left each year to accommodate India and to prevent trouble with all countries.

Any conflict looks certain to be settled in only one way, with Symonds saying: "I can earn more in six weeks in India than in the entire year for Australia."

England have no players involved - it is tempting to suggest that their international cricketers ought to pay to get on board, because only Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff are likely to attract the Indian moguls.

The centrally-contracted players are safe but the likes of Dimitri Mascarenhas are being targeted. That would mean him missing the first few weeks of the domestic season but any attempt by the England and Wales Cricket Board lawyers to block him would be challenged.

The IMG-backed project is put into eyeopening perspective by the sums readily played for the eight Indian city franchises. The two highest bids of £60million and £58million bought Bangalore and Mumbai respectively. Randy Lerner paid £62.6million two years ago to buy Aston Villa.

The threat from India grows quickly.